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Show XXV. DOMINIQUE DE GOURGUES. 1.-EA.RLY HISTORY OF GOURGUEI!I. Tn£ tidings of tho fearful massacre of tho Huguenots in Florida, as well in Spanish, as in l,.,rcnch accounts, at length reached France. Deep was the feeling of horror and indignation which they everywhere excited among the people. Catholics, not less than Protestants, felt how terrible was tho cruelty thus infiictcd upon humanity, how insolent the scorn thus put upon the fiag of the country. Wild and bitter was the cry of anguish sent up by the thousand bereaved widows and orphans of the murdered men. But this cry, this feeling, this sense of suffering and shame, awakened no sympathies in the court of France. The king, Charles IX., heard the" supplication" of the wives and children of the sufferers, without according any answer to their prayer. The blood of nearly nino hundred Yictims critld equally to earth and heaven for vengeance, and cried iu vain to the earthly sovereign. He bad no car for the sorrows and thtl wrongs of heresy ; nod the plaint of humanity W.lS stilled in the supposed interests of religion. Charles was most regally iodiff.!rent to a crime which relieved him of flo many troublesome subjects ; and was at that DOMISIQU): 0£ GOUROUE~. 415 very time, meditating the most summary processes for still farther diminishing their numbers. He was yet to provide nn appropriate finish to such a history of massacre in the bloody tragedy of St. llartholomcw. The wrong done to the honor of his flag and nation, by a rival power, was not felt. We have already hinted the strong conjecture, urged by historians, tlmt tho Spanish expedition, under )lclendez,wns planned witJ1 the full privity and concurrence of the king of F rance. His conduct, at this period, would seem fully to justify the suspicion. His existing relations with his brother of Spain were not of a sort to be periled now by the exhibition of his sympathies with a cause, and on behalf of a sect, which both monarchs had reason to hate and fear, and were preparing to extirpate. llut, if tho Court of F rance demanded no redress for the massacre of its people, and that of Spain offered none, either redress or apology, there 'vas yet a deep and intense passion dwelling in the heart of the one nation, and yearning for revenge upon that. of the other. There was still n chivalrous feeling in ·Franco which showed itself superior to the exactions of sect or party, and which brooded with terrible intensity over tho bloody fortunes of the :French in Florida. This moody meditation nt length found its fitting cxponent./f&e sentiment that stirs earnestly in the popular heart will always, sooner or latm, obtain a fitting voic and where it burns jlllltifiably for vengeance, it will not long be wanting in a weapon. The avenger arose in due season to satisfy the demands of justice ! The Chevalier, Dominique de Gourgucs, was o. Gascon gentleman, born at Mont de )larsau, in tlte County of Comingcs. His |
